No green beer here...

Food is at the center of every holiday tradition that my family is part of.  Whether that day is Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Father’s Day, every event is centered about the course of the day.  Growing up we were always well fed but what we ate wasn’t always what you would consider mouth-watering.  The Thanksgiving turkey was replaced with a Jennie-O turkey “loaf” and the ham at Easter was filling but not anything to write home about.  Now that I am grown and have a family of my own, I make it a point to have food for our traditional family gatherings that people get excited to come back year after year for.  Thanksgiving requires a golden brown, juicy turkey that would make the cover of any food magazine and taste even better.  Christmas requires a prime rib seared to perfection on the outside and cooked to a perfect rareness on the inside.  I take pride in the food that is served to our family on these occasions and now that I have a house and family of my own those festivities take place under my roof and watchful eye.

We all get excited for holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving but our favorite holiday gathering is St. Patrick’s Day.  I am not Irish but my wife is and comes from a family that embraces their family lineage.  St. Patrick’s Day was always celebrated by my wife’s family with a raucous party centered about a traditional Irish meal of corned-beef, cabbage, parsley potatoes, Cole-slaw, soda bread, lamb stew, and plenty of Guinness and Jameson.  Every year the party took place and every year the week leading up to the party was consumed with the preparation of the event.  My father-in-law was in charge of picking out the perfect cuts of meat while my mother-in-law made sure that all of the food was prepared just right.  This event occurred for many years but with several moves and kids leaving home, the party lost a little bit of its flare. 

When my wife and I got married we decided that we would get the tradition going again.  Our inaugural year was our wedding reception where we cooked a meal for 200 of our friends and family.  As was the case in the past, we spent the week leading up to the party scouring the butcher shops looking for the perfectly marbled cuts of corned-beef, buying a huge amount of potatoes and cabbage, and anticipating the happiness that our party would bring to everyone in attendance.  The nights leading up to the party found every outlet in our house invaded by a crock-pot or two and a watchful eye on the electrical panel for popping breakers.  After two full days of prepping with little to no sleep, our reception went off like a bang and is a party that people continue to talk about.  That single event rejuvenated the St. Patrick’s Day tradition in our family and now every year finds us taking over the role previously held by my in-laws.  This tradition, centered about the cuisine of the day, is one that we hold a special place for, and, hope to pass on to our children so that one day they will be able to experience the joy that we feel entertaining our family and friends.

Students are a Community...

The student body at Everett Community College is a community.  It is a diverse group that encompasses all walks of life.  Each individual possesses qualities that make them unique to the community but we are all linked by one common goal.  We are all chasing that pretty little piece of paper that we imagine will make our lives that much more complete.  Within the community represented by the student body multiple communities exist that are made up of more like-minded people.  Those groups are easily separated by the area of study that they are pursuing, age, gender, ethnicity, club affiliation, social interests, religion, etc. Although those small communities have a common thread that binds their community, as college students we are bound together by our dream to conquer the world in our own unique fashion.

As an engineering major, I find myself being part of the community made up of those people with similar academic goals.  We are brought together first by our desire to become engineers and then become intertwined based on the sheer amount of time spent together in class and collaborating on coursework.  The workload for the engineering curriculum is quite rigorous and a bond is created amongst those who face the same challenges on a daily basis.  Similar interests in the design, integration, and functionality of products draws students to area of study and gives them a starting point to build relationships.  We all share the knowledge that success is predicated upon hard work and dedication to becoming an engineer.  Each class represents an obstacle within the gauntlet of courses required to complete a degree and move on to a University.  With each class completed it is like a mini right of passage along that long road to completion.  Many of us are still undecided about the area of study within the engineering field that we will ultimately pursue leading to many interactions debating the positives and negatives of various fields.  University destinations are also a topic of discussion as well as degree level intentions.  An engineering club exists on campus and creates even more interaction between students of varying ability levels.

With so many shared interests that bring these students together there are still elements that affect the cohesion of the community.  It is my experience that many of these students are quite brilliant academically but sometimes struggle socially to connect with others.  With so much emphasis placed on mathematics and science, social skills are not developed to the same extent as the core engineering curriculum.  Given the fact that many of us plan on being done with our degrees in a reasonable amount of time, the length of time that students have to develop and maintain relationships is limited.  As we pass from one phase of life to the next it is difficult to maintain contact with the past.  This is a community that serves students needs in the interim and propels them to the next phase of life.

As a first year engineering student, I feel a budding attachment to this community.  As each class is completed and I inch one step further towards completion of my degree, a stronger connection is built within this group.  More time is spent amongst fellow engineering majors and instructors that solidify my desires to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree thus creating a stronger bond to the community.  As with most communities that we become part of in life I know that this one is a short term affiliation but it has potential to lead to long term success in the future.  I appreciate every day that I am a part of this group but look forward to the day that I get to spread my wings and fly off to bluer skies. 

What's in my Wallet?

The stories of wallets being discovered after many years are fascinating and make you wonder if the people that find them really examine their contents and the clues provided. Have they taken the time to look at every detail and piece together all of the clues contained in the capsule they have found? As I look through the contents of my wallet, I wonder what conclusions people would draw about my identity and how accurate they would be.

Upon opening my wallet the first thing that flops out is a driver’s license which is in the same flap as a student identification card. These two small pieces of plastic contain a wealth of information about who I am and what my identity might be. From the driver’s license one can find my gender, date of birth, height, weight, eye color, name, address, ethnicity, what I look like from the shoulders up and a few other details. The student ID card also contains a picture from the shoulders up that is very similar and has a current quarter sticker on it. One could gather that I was a blue-eyed, blond-haired, Caucasian male that appears to be rather clean-cut and attending Everett Community College. Other than the fact that I am currently attending school, all of the other information is really superficial and a closer inspection of my wallet would be needed to gather more evidence as to my true identity.

A more thorough examination reveals some more important details. Behind the flap containing the driver’s license is a picture of my wife and I. The picture is from a wedding reception we attended and we appear to be very happy in the picture.  The picture is tucked away in a safe place giving the finder a clue to the importance of this photo.  A run through the other two outer dividers provide an insurance card, bank cards, reward cards from several stores, and several business cards. The business cards and the health insurance card would probably provide the most information about my identity. The insurance card has my wife and son’s name on it also as well as my employer. The business cards are from contacts within the company that I work for and machine manufacturer representatives from several different companies. This information creates a simplified description of the person that I may be and the type of work I do. The one thing that is missing from my wallet are personal affects. My wife and kids are of utmost importance in my life but there is not much evidence of them located within the leather bi-fold. I really don’t have any explanation for this other than I use my wallet as a functional tool and keep it streamlined.

The contents contained within my wallet create a picture of who I am but the overall appearance of the plain, brown, leather wallet offers up much more insight to who I really am. My wallet is a reflection of my personality and how I operate. I tend to be very organized and analytical and the appearance of my wallet reflects that. I don’t keep unnecessary possessions and like my life to be simple and organized. I am not flashy and prefer a modest existence. I prefer not to draw attention to myself be it positive or negative and love the anonymity of a large city. If my wallet was sealed away in some discrete place and discovered in fifty years could my identity be recreated? Would the contents be the lone factor in recreating my identity or would the finder gather all of the clues before settling on who I really was? It would be a great historical experiment but I prefer to keep that boring, brown, bi-fold right where it belongs.

Intro

Testing one, two, three...